JOE

No, I wouldn't do away with it. Why should I? If to burn it down would
wake people up to _life_, I'd do it in a minute. But it wouldn't. They
would only sanctify the superstition and make it immortal. No, leave the
Louvre as it is. It's really quite useful.

MR. WENTWORTH

But good gracious! _Useful?_

JOE

Yes. Like history. To do away with the Louvre would be to destroy a part
of history. There's no good doing that. We need history--it cranks up
life--but we've got to recognize that after all it is only history, not
life itself--not art.

MR. WENTWORTH

But what _is_ art, if the Louvre _isn't_?

SILVIA

Don't you see, Mr. Wentworth? If you could only get for a moment into the
stream of experience where Joe and the others brought me! A picture is art
as long as it's alive--as long as it can give back the fresh, first-hand
impulses that were put into it. After that--when life has flowed on and
set up new impulses requiring a different expression--then a picture drops